Athletic cuts

It is with great interest that I follow your reports on local school closings. After reviewing the “Prioritized Program Cuts” (as published on LJWorld.com), I found that there is no mention of eliminating 1) field trips, and/or 2) grade school physical education (the kids have recess every day).

Also, there is no mention of the school board considering eliminating any sport activities from the budget. I would think that giving our kids a solid education would be the priority, and parents would be willing to make these cuts in lieu of school closings.

Presenting the community with the option of school closings has certainly caused many to become more actively involved in voicing their opinion, and perhaps this was the motive of the school board in offering such an absurd recommendation. The elimination of sports (Not all, certainly, but how about the bowling team? Or perhaps one of the following: soccer, golf, tennis, basketball, football or gymnastics? Or how about reducing each season by several weeks?) would exponentially increase the potential for a balanced budget while maintaining the motto of our school system: “Creating a safe, positive learning environment so students can become lifelong learners and productive citizens in a global society”

More like this story on LJWorld.com

Comments

while it would make sense to some to cut sports AND OTHER ACTIVITIES that all do not participate in, I would anticipate that move creating another shortfall that the board would have to cover. I would imagine some families, who are able to move, would do so, in order to provide their kids with everything they could, including sports and other clubs and activities. Our district would lose money from the loss of those students.

But how much money from the budget is actually spent on sports? And you can't talk about the new field, as that money comes from another area of the budget that you can't spend on anything else.

ugh, automatically completely turned off after your #2 point...cutting physical education is NOT smart. I don't care what kind of budget cuts you're facing...no, no, and no. Lets not promote laziness more than it already is...childhood obesity rates are already through the roof and it's disgusting.

Physical education is important not only because kids are getting fatter either...you may be able to sit on your butt all day and not do anything, but the energy that kids have should NOT be bottled up and it will only HURT them down the road. You can argue that the parents should be providing this exercise, which is TRUE, but the reality is, they dont. The consequences of cutting PE/sports/recess would be devastating...exercise has been proven to not only lower obesity, but improve concentration, self esteem, memory, decrese anxiety and depression...the list goes on.